The Dark Christmas BK Fic that has 00022 Xmas
by Shenyu
Summary: A christmas Battousai Kaoru oneshot that has basically NOTHING to do with Christmas but is still about Christmas! Read and enjoy!
1. Default Chapter

Sorry guys for not updating "The Soaring Dragons" but my writer's inspiration need some rest so this is the result.

It's a short one shot that has 0.0022 to do with Christmas. Anyhow, Enjoy!!

Listen to some really dark music to unlock the secret emotions locked with in the carefully threaded barriers of this fiction lol.

Happy soon to be Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Dark Christmas Battousai/ Kaoru fanfiction

"Hiten Mitsurugi style, Do ryu Sen" Debris from the ground were swept up by a powerful force and whipped towards it's soon to be victim.

"GAH." He screamed as he grabbed at various spots on his broken body. His eyes bulged out in pain. He was too caught up in his pains to notice his attacker loom over him and stab the sword through his heart. His head lolled to one side lifelessly as he drowned in a pool of his own warm, fresh blood.

Battousai the Manslayer flicked the red liquid from his demonic sword and disappeared into the sunset like a ghost.

It's December of the 10th year of the Meiji Era. A young girl sat on the porch of her lonely dojo as she watched the snowflakes fall from the sky gently like little pairs of wings gliding down from the sky to land in a thick layer of white powder already on the ground, she gently brushed strands of hair behind her ear as they were blown in her face by the harsh, biting wind. She wrapped the blanket around herself more tightly as she felt a chill go up her spine. A lone tear rolled down her smooth cheeks as she watched the peaceful atmosphere of her dojo. The forest beyond the fence was blanketed in a layer of the very same powder on the ground with little bits of green peeping out from under the weight.

Her face fell into her hands as she broke into tears.

"Father, mother, why?" She whispered through her pain. "Why did you have to leave me?" She asked no one in particular; even though she was crying her melodic voice still didn't break. It was like the gentle chirping of birds on a spring morning yet there was so much pain in them.

"They died for your future." Her head whipped up from its resting position in her hands and she stared at a lone figure that stood beside her wide open doors. He had a head of red hair that was tied up into a high ponytail on his head, they reminded her of a raging flame in a place of darkness. His eyes were a golden color that shone with a ferocious light that was more than terrifying to her. She shivered not from the wind but from the pure darkness that seemed to surround this stranger that stood at her doors. Her gaze trailed over his entire form and noticed two swords at his hips, one long and one short. She tensed and immediately jumped up from her sitting position.

"Who are you? Why are you in my house?" She asked with as much composure as she could muster under his enormous CHI.

"I'm Himura Battousai and I will stay here for the night." Kaoru's knees almost buckled as he said his name.

"Ba, Battousai." She stepped backwards. "The legendary manslayer?" His deathly gaze answered her question. She watched as he lifted his eyes from her and walked towards the door to her house. It was then that she regained her usual self. "He, HEY!" She ran after him stupidly as one would put it. Most people would run away from him rather than towards him.

She stopped behind her unexpected visitor as he made his way through the long hallway into the house. "Hold it right there!" She yelled. "Battousai the manslayer!" She watched intently as he slowly turned around, his eyes seemed to emit a deathly pale light that threatened to freeze her where she stood. She mustered as much energy as she could summon and continued. "Who do you think you are just strolling into my house without my permission?" She asked even though she knew somewhat that she wasn't going to get an answer so when he spoke, she was very much surprised.

"Why are you not afraid?" He asked much to her surprise. His gaze scanned her lithe figure coldly.

The girl set her chin forward determinedly and said "Afraid? Why should I be afraid of you?" She continued fearlessly but stupidly in Battousai's opinion. "The worst you could do is killing me." She said through her anger at this stranger. "Now get out of my house." She pointed behind her where the two of them had just entered.

A feral smirk suddenly appeared on Battousai's lips. "There are worse things in life than death" He turned around and took a step towards her. He would be lying to himself if he said he was not attracted to her. She was more beautiful than any women he had met through his ten years of wandering throughout the country he fought for. It was through a string of strange and twisted events that led him to this village called Edo. As he noticed the sun beginning to set and no available shelter nearby he decided to step into a dojo that he had come upon.

As soon as he entered he noticed a girl wrapped in blankets crying. He thought she was just any ordinary girl until he saw her eyes. They were deep pools of sapphire that went deeper than the deepest oceans. They alone told him that she was more experienced than most women he had met through his travels, but he felt the innocence of a child as he sensed her. Then came the temper of a tiger. All these elements combined with her angelic face made her instantly almost irresistible to him. He had fought the urge but now she was so close…

"HEY!" the loud shout snapped him out of his musings and brought him back into the half lit hallway. He noticed that she held a boken in her right hand. She took a step forward and pointed her boken at his face. "Get out of my house!" her command like shout echoed in the hallway and the two of them stood in their original positions and simply stared at each other as time passed by.

Finally, the girl decided to lounge at the intruder, but as she thrust out her boken at his head he seemed to have disappeared with a flicker of red. The next thing she knew both of her hands were bound together by a indigo ribbon and she felt her silky raven hair cascade down her shoulders as she dropped her boken. Battousai opened a door beside him and dragged her in.

She fell into him and an involuntary blush crept up her cheeks.

"Happy Christmas." He whispered.

THE END

How about that for a twist?


	2. Another Twist

She woke with a start, sweat was dripping off of her forehead. The faint light filtering in through her shoji told her that it was only the earlier hours of dawn, surely everyone else would still be asleep. She glanced to her side, almost expecting the red headed Battousai from her dreams to be lying there, sound asleep, resting after a passionate… Kaoru blushed, the dream was so vivid, it was as if she had lived it. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead and sighed. Today would be the 25th day of December; it was almost new years, what would they do to celebrate this year?

At that thought, she was reminded of the tumultuous year that they had had. It started off with Kenshin arriving at her dojo at the lowest point of her life. When an impostor calling himself the Battousai had killed many innocent people in the name of the Kamiya Kasshin style. Then, he showed up, the real Battousai, but no longer the bloodthirsty demon that all men feared ten years ago. She still remembered that foggy meeting the first time they had come face to face. She remembered his clueless look when she named him as the Battousai, not knowing just how correct she actually was. Thinking back, it was impossibly foolish for her to be chasing after someone whose skills she would never hope to emulate. She smiled, and the hateful image of Gohei, the man who sought to ruin her, faded from her mind.

After that, they had met the young thief whose soft snoring she can hear coming from across the hall. The little brat had called her ugly since day one. To this Kaoru wrinkled her nose. At first he just seemed like any other rude child of the street whose family was too poor to send him to school. But who would have thought that behind the little boy's lowly conduct, there was a noble intention: to pay off his family's debt. Little did he know, he was nothing but a money-making tool for the mafia, and there was no debt to begin with. Through all of this, his samurai spirit shown through, and Kenshin saw this too. Maybe this is why he had intervened at the last moment and saved Yahiko from a miserable life. She smiled again, she can't exactly say that the little boy's stay here at the dojo has been a smooth one, he is constantly getting on her nerves, but he has become more of a brother than a boarder to her.

Then they had met Sanosuke the street fighter. She remembered the intense look in his eyes the first time she had seen him, he looked lawless and carefree. He was invincible. Buried deep under his tough exterior, however, is a boy whose childhood is filled with hatred for those that killed the only one he has ever admired. She had known that Kenshin was atoning for his past before this, but during that fight, she saw him actually doing it. He isn't just a swordsman who has unrivalled skills, his life is nothing to him, he could die at any moment and not care, but he lives for others. After that, when she was kidnapped by Jineh, she saw his other side, the one where he has locked away since the revolution. She understood why he struck fear into men. When he wants to kill, there is nothing that can stop him, she feared what he was capable of.

When Saitou showed up at her dojo doorsteps, she didn't know that her life was about to be turned upside down. From the terrifying duel between the two old rivals in her dojo, which destroyed several walls; at this, she cringed, remembering the cost of replacing all those walls; to the tearful good bye, and the process of picking herself back up, and finally defeating the Jupponkatana and nervously waiting for Kenshin to come back. She realized that Battousai the manslayer, the demon, isn't infallible, he is capable of mistakes, injuries and even death.

She pushed the covers off of herself and crawled in front of her mirror and stared at her reflection. Surprisingly, she looked reasonably presentable despite having just woken up. She folded her hands in front of her and laid her head down on them, contemplating herself. Her large sapphire eyes stared back blankly. In her head she relived the now fading dream, she blushed again, but her expression soon turned to a sad one. She knew that Kenshin was far from ready to love her, or love anyone for that matter. For now, he would always be a distant protector and a tortured man hiding behind the mask of a pleasant rurouni, she had known that for many months now. She turned away from the mirror and hid her face in her arms. There was nothing more that she wanted right now than to be with Kenshin and show him the love she felt for him, but she knew that that is utterly impossible. For now, she can only be there when he needed her, and slowly coax him out of the shell he had formed around himself and maybe, one day he'll finally accept her. She felt tears starting to well up in her eyes and blinked them away. Kamiya Kaoru is not one who'll cry so easily. She looked at herself again, now she saw the feisty Kaoru in the mirror, and not the helpless one merely moments ago.

"Kenshin will never leave me, I won't allow it." She whispered, the resolve in her voice both surprised and frightened her. She decided to let the matter rest for now. She stood up and patted her rosy cheeks gently, today would be a good day. She threw a long coat around herself, vaguely remembering it being the same coat she had worn when she first met her red headed boarder and padded over to the shoji and slid it open. _Kenshin is probably still asleep, I think I'll fire up a bath and wash up before everyone wakes up… I'll surprise everyone with breakfast when they wake up! _She thought cheerfully as she slid out of the hallway and into the yard. Walking towards the bathhouse, she clad the coat closer around her thin frame. The light was getting brighter now, and there was not a sound except for the gentle crunching sound she made as she trudged through the snow that had collected on the ground overnight. She wiped a strand of hair out of her face and hauled five buckets of water from the well and dumped them into the tub inside the bathhouse, thankfully the water hasn't frozen yet. She stood beside the stove and bent down to pick up some fire wood that were neatly stacked beside it. Retrieving a match from inside the bathhouse, she quickly started a fire under the bathtub. As the wet wood crackled and popped inside the stove, she appreciated the work that Kenshin does everyday when he had to heat her baths. She pulled her overcoat even closer to herself as she sat easily on the bench beside the bathhouse after clearing it of snow with her sleeve. She looked over the yard, everything was white, and the sun was beginning to peek over the dojo walls shyly. A slight breeze blew through the yard, carrying with it some flakes of snow, making Kaoru shiver, she absently threw a few more blocks of wood into the fire, still looking out across the yard. _It's beautiful._ She thought.

"Miss Kaoru?" Kaoru snapped out of her thought and noticed that Kenshin was beside her. So caught up in her work was she that she didn't even notice the red head approaching her from across the yard. His sleeve was tied back with a rope, signalling that he had just come from the kitchen where he most likely had started cooking.

"Mou Kenshin…" She pouted, looking at the ropes, "I wanted to cook for everyone today." Her mock displeasure turned to a smile as she stared at him, who returned the smile in kind.

"If you want to, you could help me."

"You're just flattering me, I know what everyone thinks of my cooking, I doubt you'd want me to ruin your masterpiece." She laughed easily, and before Kenshin would come up with some retort, she continued "If the little brat doesn't like my cooking, I won't let him blame you as well because you were involved in the cooking." She laughed.

"I think your cooking is very delicious miss Kaoru," Kenshin said, making her flush and feel silly that such a simple remark could make her blush at the same time, "when he insults your cooking, it's his way of showing his appreciation, as strangely as that sounds."

"Or he can just be an ungrateful brat." They both laughed lightly.

"Miss Kao.." Before he could speak, she cut him off.

"Kenshin, can you stop putting miss in front of my name every time you say it? Please?"

"But…"

"No if, ands or buts!" She said forcefully, bringing her face close to his menacingly in mock aggression.

"Yes M'am." The red head squeaked, and she sighed exasperatedly.

"Kenshin, why do you insist with this politeness, we're friends aren't we? Why do you still keep up these silly formalities, you don't treat Sano the same way, so why me?" A dull pain shot through her when she acknowledged that their relationship is nothing more than friendship. She was so caught up in the simple emotion that she didn't realize a sad look had crossed her face, Kenshin had noticed this, and he looked more serious.

"Because you are important to me, Kaoru" Kenshin said seriously, she stared at him, "you helped me face what I truly am, and you are part of the reason why I am still alive today, and not laying dead on mount Hiei, and for that, I am grateful." Kaoru struggled to find something to say, but nothing came out, what was it that today, now, that Kenshin would suddenly open himself up to her like this? Not knowing what to say turned out to not be a problem, because after standing for a second in silence, Kenshin closed the distance between them and embraced her. It was full of warmth; she could literally feel his happiness at being here, in this dojo, with her on this beautiful morning, very much unlike the embrace they shared when he said goodbye before heading off alone for Kyoto. Moment later, they had separated, and Kaoru felt her face heat, and it was not at all from the fire that was burning merrily right beside them. Kenshin stuttered something incoherent and tried to remove his hands from around her, but she stopped him as she circled her own arms around his waist and leaned into him.

"Kenshin, do you think we could ever be more than friends?" She whispered quietly, forgetting everything and ignoring all consequences and just living in the moment. In this moment, her, with Kenshin, in her beautiful home, with her adoptive brother sleeping inside the house, she could be happy forever. She felt Kenshin tighten his hold around her. She pushed away, one hand resting lightly on his chest. Moving almost automatically, she reached up and cupped his scarred cheek with her slender hand and brought her face up close to his. She closed her eyes as she felt his lips against hers in a gentle kiss.

The kiss only lasted for a second, but to them it seemed like it could have been forever, that moment would be forever etched into their memories. He pulled away and looked into her eyes intensely, she didn't smile, but instead rested her head in the crook of his neck, pleasantly aware that his hands were still firmly held around her shoulders and waist.

"I love you." She whispered softly, almost deafly, so quietly that she wasn't even sure if the red head had heard her.

"Kaoru…" Kenshin said slowly, he was struggling to find the words to say. She pulled back and put a finger to his lips.

"You don't have to answer me right now," she said quietly, "I just wanted to be honest with you, if you're not ready, then I understand." His hand came up and held her hand.

"Kaoru, I can't say I love you now," he started, a sharp pain shot through her, "but please wait for me, one day, I'll be able to say those words without the burdens of my past on my shoulders." He explained. At first she looked confused, but then some understanding, "I want to love you when I can do it with my whole being, when I have conquered all of my demons, however long that takes, I'll come around, so Kaoru, please wait for me." Tears once again welled up in her eyes, but Kaoru Kamiya would not cry, not when her lover hasn't even told her he loves her!

"Mou," she complained, "You always have to make things so complicated." He laughed, and so did she. "But okay, I'll definitely wait for you," she smiled, "however long you need, I'll always be here, and so will you." and he caressed her soft cheeks with his calloused hand.

"Have I ever told you that you're beautiful?"

"No…"

"Well, you're beautiful." He bent down and kissed her again, this time with more passion. When they separated, flecks of gold danced in his eyes. "I think it's about time I got back to cooking breakfast." he said hastily, as if finally realizing what had just transpired between them. He removed his hands from around her and turned to head back towards the kitchen.

"I don't think so." Came a forceful reply.

And Kaoru, one hand firmly grasping Kenshin's wrist, pulled him inside the bathhouse.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Author's Note: THis one shot is canon, but I've set it up so it happens after everything has happened in the RK manga. It's just a nice relaxing one shot I decided to write at the end of the years with the winter holidays upon us. So happy holidays everyone!


End file.
